Picture of the Day · NASA
Pathfinder on Mars
2026-07-04
On July 4th, 1997, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft bounced like a giant beach ball at least 15 times before it came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time. After its then novel airbag-assisted landing sequence was completed, Pathfinder transmitted this color mosaic to mission operators on Earth. In the scene from another world, the Mars Sojourner robot rover is visible in the foreground, crouched on top of the unfolded Pathfinder. About the size of a large house cat, the six-wheeled, solar-powered Sojourner became the first successful Martian rover. Surrounding Pathfinder are deflated airbags and the rock-strewn terrain of the Ares Vallis floodplain. In the distance Martian hills appear against a dusty brownish sky. The Pathfinder lander was subsequently renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.
via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- E. Hubble
- Discovery site
- Mount Wilson Obs.
- Discovery date
- 30 August 1935
- Named after
- Cincinnati Observatory
- Alternative designations
- 1935 QN
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Cybele · ACO
- Observation arc
- 82.62 yr (30,176 d)
- Aphelion
- 4.4958 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3457 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.4208 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 6.33 yr (2,311 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 98.044 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 9 20.88 / day
- Inclination
- 38.936°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 297.47°
- Argument of perihelion
- 99.148°
- Mean diameter
- 19.448 ± 0.175 km , 19.751 ± 0.165 km , 22.16 ± 1.66 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 5.2834 ± 0.0002 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 19.448
- Orbital period
- 2307.334274489623
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1935 QN
- time of discovery or invention
- 1935-08-30
- orbital inclination
- 38.95254925384474
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.3152399956150335
- absolute magnitude
- 11.46
- periapsis
- 2.339985213305224
- apoapsis
- 4.494482916611147
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.417234064958185
- mean anomaly
- 112.6557597835656
- longitude of ascending node
- 297.4392799736293
- argument of periapsis
- 98.8819179148009
- albedo
- 0.155
- rotation period
- 5.2834
- time of periapsis
- 2460278.45973398
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
1373 Cincinnati, provisional designation 1935 QN, is an asteroid in a comet-like orbit from the Cybele region, located at the outermost rim of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. It was the only asteroid discovery made by famous American astronomer Edwin Hubble, while observing distant galaxies at Mount Wilson Observatory in California on 30 August 1935. The rather spherical X-type asteroid has a rotation period of 5.3 hours. It was named for the Cincinnati Observatory.
Orbit and classification